Dagenham, Essex.

Sir, •

I am intrigued with your review of my book ” Wheelspin,” particularly the suggestion for more careful editing. In this connection may I draw your attention to a paragraph at the foot of the same page, and also ask you to count up the number of photographs again !

Forgive my having a ” dig ” at you, but you do lay yourself wide open. [Agreed I—En.] Anyway, thanks for the nice remarks, which seem to be in excess of the criticisms. You were a bit hard about the “bleeding knuckles ” ; I know you review the book from the point of view of the informed enthusiast, and had the work been written for publication only in a specialised paper, a lot of this stuff would * *

have been left out, including the first three or four pages. But as this was a book for the open market the publishers pressed particularly for “human interest” stuff. Even if dramatic, the description was not an exaggeration ; that is why the incident has remained so clearly in my mind after so many years.

I still stick to my observations about Widlake. Speed is mostly relative, and Brooklands is a big place with lots of space round it. On the few occasions that I have driven there I have been surprised, even disappointed, how relatively slow 100 m.p.h. seems. Widlake is narrow, extremely rough, has a high bank on the off side, and a tree-lined drop on the near side and ruts tend to take charge of the steering, added to which rear tyre pressures were usually reduced to under 10 lb.

As regards the ” knobs ” I can only claim “poetic licence” ; sorry !

A second edition is already being printed, but there will be no index because of paper and print and labour problems. I should have liked one, and some more photographs. I am, Yours, etc.,

C. A. N. MAY% Alveehurch, Worcs. [It isn’t so much how fast a car appears to be going up Widlake/around Brooklands, as how relatively unpleasant seems the possibility of going over the edge, and the probable consequences thereof !—En.1